America. Great. Again.

I watched the events of Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol unfold in real time.  I had tuned in to listen to the proceedings in Congress, disgusted as senators and representatives voted to object to the results of our free and fair election.  (Voted to disenfranchise EVERYONE, by the way—not just those of us who voted for Joe Biden.)  I was horrified as I watched the rioters breach the building, but I felt (what I now know to be) a false sense of safety for people inside.  The news correspondent I watched calmly reported as she was shepherded with lawmakers to the undisclosed safe location.  Now, as I watch the horrific videos of the mob menacing and beating police officers, smashing glass, chanting “Hang Mike Pence”, I realize just how close incredible danger came to the people working inside the Capitol Building.  It was a lynch mob deprived of its intended victims.  As I try to internalize the reality that the President of the United States set this violent mob on its march to the Capitol and then refused to provide emergency protection when things got out of control, I am horrified to realize just how dangerous this moment is for our country and all of us.  

There is no equivalence between this mob and the Black Lives Matter protests and riots of the summer, as some on the right have suggested.  The BLM protests were borne of the grief and frustration and helplessness that resulted from watching another innocent black man get murdered by police.  Did those protests at times turn violent and destructive?  Yes.  But they were not egged on by the leaders of “the left”.  Joe Biden did not condone the violence.  

This mob is a class unto itself in American history.  At the behest of the president and loser of the 2020 election, this mob intended to disrupt the proceedings of government at the precise moment it was to certify Joe Biden as president-elect of the United States.  They came prepared with guns, bombs, and zip-ties.  They built a gallows and hung a noose.  They killed a police officer and drove another to suicide.  The twin goals of this mob and its enablers: sedition and terror.

And yet, they practically waltzed into the Capitol.  As many have already commented and as all but the most deluded know, had such a mob been planned and formed by black and brown men, that day would have had a very different outcome.  Riot police would have been prepared and deployed as they were during the BLM protests over the summer.  Countless members of the mob undoubtedly would have been shot.  But the benefit of the doubt is always and only afforded to white men.  We watched the most rotten advantage of white privilege on full display: the permission to invade and destroy.   

It seems almost a poetic summation of all Trump hypocrisy.  Was this the “law and order” they cite?  Do patriots (as Ivanka called them) show love of country by smearing feces in the halls of Congress?  Love is patient, love is kind, it is never rude.  Can we honor “blue lives” and the stars and stripes as they did, by beating police officers with the American flag?  Or is the real way to thank a cop to bludgeon him to death with a fire extinguisher? We watched the literal manifestation of the ways white resentment has hollowed out our ideals and rendered words meaningless.

The mob is just one piece of the existential danger America faces at this moment.  Another, perhaps more enraging component is the mob’s enablers: all those who spread lies about the security of the election, who raised hopes it could be overturned, those who have actively done Donald Trump’s bidding for the last five years and those who passively ignored the warnings of his unfitness, all who carelessly sacrifice norms and traditions of American democracy in pursuit of power.  The Republican Party is irredeemable by its support of President Trump and its complicity in the subversion of American democracy.

How do they not understand the glaringly obvious: that Donald Trump is only loyal to himself?  He will feed any of his followers to the wolves as soon as it benefits him to do so.  Mike Pence—the most loyal servant—literally faced a lynch mob sent by his boss because he refused to abuse his ceremonial role of certifying the results of the election.  Gallows built, noose hung, crowd chanting “hang Mike Pence”.  The crowd egged on by the president, told “we love you” by the president.  And still Mike Pence won’t say the president is unfit to hold the office.  And still Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and countless others voted to object to the results of a free and fair election.  As Clare Malone (one of my favorite political observers) often says, partisanship is a hell of a drug.  

There is a straight line from the “Unite the Right” march of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville to this mob’s attack on the Capitol, and there is no guarantee the line ends here.  I fear the likelihood of its escalation.  That likelihood is why Trump must be removed from power immediately and all his enablers held to account.  His patterns are known and reliable—every norm he breaks is a crack he eventually tears wide open.  This latest broken norm is the most significant: America’s tradition of the peaceful transfer of power is over.  We are nearing collapse.  If history is any guide, these events can get much uglier.  We must act now if we do not want political violence to become our new normal.

The number one priority of Joe Biden’s presidency must be to shore up democracy. He must boldly and swiftly face the emergency of this moment.  Thankfully he will have the power.  He must use it.

A few ideas how:

• Combat the trend of minority rule by abolishing the electoral college and directly electing the president
• Reform nepotism laws
• Require all candidates to disclose tax returns
• Reform the presidential pardon power
• Grant DC and Puerto Rico statehood
• Statehood would provide insulation from the whims of a vindictive president—the ability to call in its own National Guard, etc.  Events of January 6 and (reaching further back) the aftermath of Hurricane Maria show us that the power to protect Washington and Puerto Rico must not be in the hands of the president.
• Prosecute all those responsible for the attack on the Capitol to the fullest extent of the law.

There can be no unity with traitors.  There can be no forgiveness when there is no sorrow.  We must understand the immediate danger of this moment and hold to account all those responsible for how we got here.  

The President will travel tomorrow to Alamo, Texas to tout the “success” of his border wall.  Do not mistake the significance of the name of that town.  He is emboldened and he will further agitate his dangerous followers.  

Hitler’s first attempt to overthrow the German government—the “Beer Hall Putsch”—was in 1924.  The Nazis failed that time, but they were never stamped out and successfully completed their “revolution” nearly a decade later.  The Holocaust swiftly followed.  It can happen here.  We are watching it happen here.  We must stamp out this evil before it is too late.

I have feelings about the election.

Four years ago, I went into Election Day with so much hope.  I was excited to vote for Hillary and elect our first Madam President.  But I couldn’t deny the pit in my stomach at the mere chance Trump could win.  I felt sick that Republicans had allowed him so close to the Oval Office—this alone obliterated any respect I had for the party, the weak men and women who would rather risk America’s ruin than lose an election.  How was the danger he posed to the republic not obvious?  I still can’t understand that.

On election night, I had left my office in downtown San Francisco with several states still in play, but by the time I got home to the Castro, key states were starting to go for Trump.  I opened my computer and watched the 538 Election Forecast tick toward a Trump victory.  The tears started to flow and I couldn’t do anything to stop them.  Will was already at the election “party” we had planned to attend.  I asked him to please come home—I did not want to be with other people while I was already so upset, but I also didn’t want to be alone.  But Will was not the kind of boyfriend to leave a party—even a depressing party— because his girlfriend asked him to.  He told me our friend Evan was on his way and would stop by our house to come get me.  Evan is a good friend but not one who had seen me ugly cry—that changed as soon as I opened the door.  We walked to the house party—hosted by someone in the neighborhood that Clare knew—and rang the bell.  Someone let us in and we walked into what felt like a wake.  Clare was there and we hugged and cried.  We got settled in the living room and numbly watched the returns come in, as we cried and poured glass after glass of wine.  We were perhaps an odd group—besides Clare, Evan, Will, and me, all the other people there were older gay men I had never met.  But, for reasons I’ve never been able to describe well, it was perhaps the most comforting group I could have been with.  I was glad I hadn’t stayed home by myself.

I’m not ashamed that I cried on Election Night 2016.  “Election night crybabies” are favorite punching bags of Fox News hosts and their devotees.  Fuck ‘em.  I was right to cry.  My instincts screamed—we could not give the most powerful office to a vile, corrupt, incompetent man without disastrous consequences.  Days later, I was on the phone with my mom trying to explain why I was so upset.  I remember being surprised when I heard the words “people are going to die” escape from my lips.

And here we are four years later, approaching a quarter million dead Americans in an out of control pandemic.  Officially six dead children in the custody/cages of our border officials.  At least 90 Kurdish civilians killed when we abandoned our allies in northern Syria, including a 34-year-old female politician brutalized and shot multiple times on the side of a highway.  A young woman protesting white supremacy in Charlottesville—was the driver of the car that bulldozed her a “very fine person”?  How many American soldiers killed by a Taliban collecting bounties from Russia, while our president knew and did nothing?

Ideals are dying alongside people: our common sense of purpose as Americans, the belief that we can accomplish greatness, our sense of decency. I’m afraid democracy is dying.  There has such an erosion of trust, surely now some people say “why bother with democracy at all?”. They see a system supposedly beyond repair and are prepared to throw in the towel.  

-

My life is vastly different than it was four years ago.  I live on the opposite side of the country now, in an apartment with no roommates for the first time in my life (!) (besides my pup, of course).  I’ve taken risks and accomplished goals. I designed the house my parents live in and now have a new job with a firm that I love.  I’ve made some wonderful new friends.

But I think one of the biggest differences between now and then is that a naïveté in me has died—an innocent belief that people would easily recognize and repudiate evil.  I believed that when faced with the choice, people would do the right thing.  But now after witnessing countless obscenities and casual instances of cruelty from this administration and its supporters, I understand that is not a given.  Greed, lust for power, and compensation for personal insecurities are intense motivators.  I’m reminded of the quote from Reinhold Niehbur:

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

The America I love is hard to recognize now.  I fear she will be dead too if we have to endure another four years of President Trump.  If he wins/“wins” this election, expect a “President for Life” by the end of his second term.

This is how I feel going into Election Day 2020: extremely anxious.  I want to believe that voters will turn out in historic numbers and together we will decisively reject Donald Trump.  I want to believe in the event of a close election, the sanctity of the process will hold—that all votes will be counted and the candidates will accept the results.  But I can’t trust these hopes—the void left by my old naïveté won’t allow it.

Vote because our lives depend on it.  Vote because our children deserve so much better than the existence we currently endure.  Vote because you love freedom and you love life.  Vote because you care about your fellow Americans.  There’s only one team on the ballot that shares these values, and you know which one it is.

Black lives matter.

I’ve always used writing as a way to process my feelings about events around me. I can look back at times in my life when I wrote nearly nothing and recognize I was avoiding issues and feelings I needed to address. I think that’s why the Blob has been so silent recently. To truly process the events in America over the last few days (and weeks and months and years) would be to admit things about us I don’t want to admit. It would be painful and scary and sad.

But whatever I feel now in writing this is nothing compared to the pain felt by those who see themselves, their brothers, sons, and fathers in George Floyd as he gasps for his last breath.

The only thing I can permit myself to feel is shame. Shame that I ever thought racism was a thing of the past. Shame that someone can look at me with the legitimate fear that I could be an Amy Cooper walking my dog. Shame that I know people who will continue to repeat the “bad people on both sides” garbage. Shame that America continues to hold down the people who most embody her ideals. Shame that we are “led” by a man who delights in the inequality and violence.

How can we look our fellow Americans—fellow human beings—in the eye?

All we can do is give. Give money, time, love. We can practice radical empathy toward every person we meet, wherever and whenever we meet them.

We cannot give up America. We cannot give in to anger or despair. Justice will prevail, but not by default. We can only make it happen with discipline and love. Be safe and be smart.

PAY ATTENTION.

(Not gonna be my most clever or eloquent, but feels urgent to post something. I woke up like this.)

Pay attention today to what happens in the Senate today.  I believe the actions taken today—the decision whether to allow witnesses in this impeachment trial—has the potential to decide the fate of this Republic.  (I really do hate sounding so dramatic but I don’t know how else to put it.)  I’m sick of the “history will judge this GOP harshly” cluck-clucking.  History is now.  We have to judge them harshly NOW.  We are running out of chances to preserve the republic.

If the Senate will not call witnesses, if the Senate will not conduct a fair impeachment trial, it waives—it denudes itself of—its most critical oversight power: the check on a lawless president.  When Congress has no power—the people have no power.  You and I have no power.  Congress is our voice.  If Congress cannot perform its checks on the executive branch...we no longer have a president as the Constitution defines it.  We have a man above law.  I wouldn’t expect Donald Trump to know Louis XIV’s “l’etat c’est moi”, but he understands and craves the meaning of that sentiment.

A sham trial “exonerating” the president will only embolden him to continue usurping power.  (How is this not crystal clear—I want to bang my head against the wall.)  

Possible implication: Imagine the President loses the electoral college in 2020, but he and his lackeys cry voter fraud.  He refuses the results and will not give up the White House.  Can we rely on Congress to enforce the results of the election?  Would they remove him?  Could they?  It profoundly saddens me that I don’t have that faith.  

[“Claire, you’re crazy, that’s not gonna happen.” Before the 2016 election, he said: “I’ll accept the results—if I win.”  He tells us who he is all the time.  We have to believe him.  If he was willing to challenge election results WITHOUT the power of incumbency, do we really think he wouldn’t do it with his fat ass comfortably on the White House toilet?  Particularly if leaving office surrenders his protection from indictment?]

I don’t understand GOP senators—isn’t this one of those great opportunities of history to do what’s right?  Why is it so hard? I will never understand the individual cowardice.  Why—WHY—would you rather go down in history as a servile imp to team cruel-ignorant-despot-wannabe-and-gobbly-turtle-man than as a LEGITIMATE AMERICAN HERO??

I can understand the collective cowardice however.  I always think back to that GOP post-mortem report after losing to Obama a second time.  They understood that demographics were scheduled to doom the Republican Party as it currently operated, but rather than adapt itself to our norms and institutions, they decided to keep power by burning the whole thing down.

I remember a conversation I had with someone who couldn’t stomach Hillary, who knows deep down that Trump is trash, but is too stubborn to give any ground.  I listed how I saw Trump as a real threat to the Constitution—our very system of government.  He scoffed at me.  “The Republic will survive,” he said.  “Why risk it?” I answered.  

Evil knows it will lose to good in a fair fight, so it works to gain any edge it can through deceit and trickery BEFORE the fight begins in earnest.  It stacks its deck by taking advantage of good’s faith that everything will be alright, of good’s complacency, of good’s fear that maybe it’s too late.  

We must care.  We must pay attention.

This has been your occasionally scheduled freak-out over the decline of our democracy.  Have a nice rest of your day.

RUSSIA IF YOU'RE LISTENING

I hadn't logged into Blogger in a long time, and was surprised to see that my Russian followers have lately renewed their interest in my blog:

Pageviews by Countries this week.

You may recall how, in the lead-up to the 2016 election, this blog transitioned from accounts of carefree California adventures to alarm at the world's devolving political realities to dire warnings of the fall of the Republic.  (And it has mostly continued in that vein, with occasional hints of "I will probably die alone but at least I have my sanity.") During that transition, I noticed I gained a small Russian "readership".  "Huh, that's odd," I remember thinking, "I don't know anyone in Russia."  But soon, Russia claimed the #2 spot of countries with the most views of my blog.  (Who's #1?  USA! USA! USA!  Thank you for your support, even when I write nothing.)  

After they helped elect Donald Trump without his knowledge (which is entirely believable because he's never had knowledge, duh), the Russians got bored with my blog and and their views slowed to a mere trickle.  But now they're back.  (#releasethepeetape)  These campaigns always start earlier and earlier, don't they?  They can't even wait till 2020 to start hacking the election.  Where's the respect?

I'm pretty confident Vladimir Putin doesn't have The Blob on a watchlist, but I am curious about the whole bot-farm process.  I don't think this happens to every website--I have a similarly unknown architecture blog and last I checked, not a single Russian had laid its bot-balls on it.  So how do the bots find me?  Does The Blob have a critical mass of certain keywords?  What do they do once they are here?  Come for the hack and stay for the jokes?  Guess at my password?  Take screenshots? 

All time views by country.

I know 724 hits from Russian bots on my little blog is small potatoes in terms of the internet.  I wanted to share this because I think it's hard to visualize what "Russia hacking our elections" actually means.  Maybe this gives it some scale.  Plus I'm pretty sure you can still make vodka out of small potatoes.

I had logged in to write a small impeachment post, but then saw all the Russians at my door.  Like this administration, I take national security very seriously so I think I will save impeachment for tomorrow.





PS. Sincere apologies to the Borises and Natashas if in fact you are real humans who come here to enjoy the fretting of a random American girl.

Voting to-do list.

Alright, kids.  We have a critical election on Tuesday.  Here are two things we can do:

1. Vote.
2. Have The Talk with your parents.

The second item applies however you think your parents will be voting.  If you are on the same page, great.  Encourage them and thank them.  But if you disagree, talk to them.  I know it sucks and is way easier not to.  Your siblings may get angry with you and wish you’d keep your mouth shut (may I recommend a time other than dinner?).  But it’s important.  You may not change their minds or sway their vote, but they need to hear your voice.  Tell them you are worried.  Give them reasons why.  Show them evidence.  Don’t resort to name-calling.  Tell them you love them instead.  Donald Trump has split up enough families.  

Maybe they are also troubled by the current climate, but they think we are too far down the path of corruption to make any difference.  They’ve thrown in the towel.  Tell them how strange it is to hear them say such things, when you’ve been so accustomed to them telling you to never give up.  Ask them where we would be if that had been the attitude of their parents in the 1940s.  Tell them you will not give up without a fight, because that is how they raised you and how their parents raised them.  

Tell them what you see of your generation.  I see optimism, inventiveness, and determination.  We have big ideas and big hearts.  We crave the freedom and opportunity that is our inheritance from this great nation—the nation you will hand over to us, even if we have to claw it from your cold, dead fingers.  We will make it new again.  Because you taught us to participate.  We weren’t out there buying those participation trophies for ourselves.  You gave them to us.  You enrolled us in softball and dance and scouts and summer camp.  You taught us to participate because you knew its value.  We learned participation is not just valuable—it is essential.  Healthy society cannot function without it.  Democracy cannot function without it.  

Happy voting, friends.  

Only 2 years ago?  What a wild ride.

Due Process: A Treatise on Entitled Men

There is so much to say about the Kavanaugh confirmation process, and much of it has already been said elsewhere.  (A great example of “If you’re not mad, you’re not paying attention.”)  But something that stuck out to me was the image of a grown, white man ranting his “righteous” anger in front of the United States Senate about the end of due process in America.  Give me a fucking break.

The left-wing rag Merriam-Webster defines due process as:

1

: a course of formal proceedings (such as legal proceedings) carried out regularly and in accordance with established rules and principles

— called also procedural due process

2

: a judicial requirement that enacted laws may not contain provisions that result in the unfair, arbitrary, or unreasonable treatment of an individual

— called also substantive due process

But there seems to be some confusion about what due process is, particularly amongst white men.  They seem to believe due process is their right, and the right of their fellow white men, to get away with anything, their right to succeed in spite of any misstep, any exposed character flaw, any crime.  Of course he deserves this promotion—it’s simply due process.  Amazing how differently due process works for white men than it does for everyone else.  It’s leeway that simply does not exist for others.  

Where is due process for victims of sexual assault?  They can’t (and never have been able to) trust the course of formal proceedings to result in justice.  I don’t see Brett Kavanaugh crying about that.  I don’t see Brett Kavanaugh doing anything about that.  And one might argue that, as a federal judge, he is one of the few who actually can do something about that.

Where is due process for the thousands who are incarcerated because they can’t afford bail?  Where is due process for the unarmed African American men shot and killed by police officers?  Where is due process for their families? Yes, due process is failing many people in America.  But it is not failing white men.  So forgive me when I vomit at the sight of an overgrown prep-school jackass-turned-federal-judge crying about the end of due process in America.  

Serving on the Supreme Court is a privilege, not a right.  Brett Kavanaugh missing out on his dream job isn’t due process failing him—it’s an occurrence many ordinary Americans, disproportionately women, have had to swallow with grace.  “Your resume is very impressive, but this job may not be quite right for you.”  Brett Kavanaugh missing out on his dream job because he tried to rape a girl in high school isn’t due process failing him—it’s his past coming back to bite him.  The Supreme Court confirmation process hasn’t ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life.  Brett Kavanaugh ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life.

I believe Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape Christine Blasey Ford.  Regardless of that, I believe Brett Kavanaugh’s behavior yesterday disqualifies him serving on the Supreme Court.  He did away with any pretense that he is not a complete partisan.  He showed he has no composure under stress.  I seriously doubt his ability to remove his own prejudice in ruling on any case.  Rather, I strongly suspect his contempt for “the left” would steer him toward vindictiveness.  There is enough vindictiveness in politics.  Sexual abusers are well represented.  Surely we can do better than Brett Kavanaugh.

#neverforget: A Treatise on Fear and Freedom

After listening to President Obama’s speech (which I highly recommend), I was inspired to dig up FDR’s Four Freedoms speech.  I’d been meaning to do so for a while—it often pops into my head against the constant, reckless fear-mongering by our president and his enablers.  The Four Freedoms speech was FDR’s State of the Union address in January 1941—his message that the Union was preparing for the fight of her life, an existential battle for how humans deserve to live in this world: with freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.  The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor would happen less than a year later.  

It’s scary how relevant his words are now.  An excerpt:

I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world–assailed either by arms, or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.

... 

In times like these it is immature–and incidentally, untrue–for anybody to brag that an unprepared America, single-handed, and with one hand tied behind its back, can hold off the whole world.

No realistic American can expect from a dictator’s peace international generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion–or even good business.

Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors. “Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.

We must always be wary of those who with sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal preach the “ism” of appeasement.

We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests. 

How reassuring to read and imagine hearing those words from an American president.  Don’t know what you got till it’s gone, right?

I bring this up today out of anxiety that we are confusing what we should #neverforget about September 11, 2001.  The attacks of September 11th were an evil and cowardly attack on our freedom.  They were meant to inspire fear.  Death by itself can’t destroy democracy—fear can.  Like democracy, fear is simply an idea.  But they are two ideas that cannot live in the same place.

I remember a particular history lesson at Villa.  Our teacher remarked it wasn’t a given that ordinary Americans would stick to the values of democracy in the wake of the stock market crash and Great Depression.  The conditions for fascism seemed riper in a place like Germany, for instance, but we were not immune.  Look at this photo essay from The Atlantic.  These are images of 1930s New Jersey and New York, not Germany.  (Check out that crowd at Madison Square Garden—yuge!)  High-profile Americans like Charles Lindbergh espoused the “America First” Committee, whose stated goal was to keep America out of the war, an intention that sometimes mixed with fascism of its own.  On this day in 1941, Lindbergh gave a speech detailing the three groups he believed were to blame for pushing us towards war in Europe—the British, American Jews, and the Roosevelt administration.  Regarding the second group, he said:

It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race.

No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy both for us and for them. Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way for they will be among the first to feel its consequences.

Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastations. A few far-sighted Jewish people realize this and stand opposed to intervention. But the majority still do not.

Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government. 

But be assured: 

I am not attacking either the Jewish or the British people. Both races, I admire.

But I am saying that the leaders of both the British and the Jewish races, for reasons which are as understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in the war.

We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we also must look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction.

Back in that history class, I remember thinking how obvious it seemed that remaining true to the values of our democracy would be the only way to defeat fascism.  And I still don’t think that’s my hindsight bias talking.  Democracy and fascism are fundamentally opposed.  Democracy includes all people—all men are created equal.  Fascism excludes certain people.  Charles Lindbergh doesn’t get to exclude Jewish people from an American democracy, as much as he professes to “admire their race”.  When we compromise on which groups of people get to be included in “freedom”, we defeat democracy.  When we compromise on a fundamental belief, it’s not a fundamental belief anymore.  Democracy depends on the word “all.”

Fear and freedom cannot live in the same place.  I believe this essential truth to my core.  You know it too.  We feel most human when we are most free:

• when we can freely and honestly express what’s happening in our brains and hearts, and when we respect others for doing the same
• when we can praise the spirit of life in whatever way makes sense to us, in whatever way gives us true joy
• when our bodies enjoy health and sustenance and mobility, when we can walk and eat and dance
• when we can do all these things with confidence, when we can do them without shame, without being afraid.

Isn’t that when we feel most alive?

That is the promise of America I grew up believing in and loving.  The promise itself is American exceptionalism—the rest is just noise.  When we abandon the promise, we lose what sets us apart, what makes us great—our freedom.

I’ll presume to close with the end of FDR’s 1941 State of the Union:

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.

To that high concept there can be no end save victory.

Raise a glass to freedommmmm

I think we are in crisis mode.

Let the Blob be the first to inform you that the president’s recent trip to Europe has caused a bit of a stir.  Let’s get to it.

I believe there is and has been real, strategic evil coming out of Russia.  At minimum, their goal is to weaken the West and paint democracy as fraud. They gambled that if they could infiltrate enough of our institutions and corrupt a strategic group of individuals, our own partisan division and political apathy would do the rest to bring us down.  They’ve had impressive success so far.

In the past, bad actors sought to achieve such ideological goals through acts of war.  Think of the invasion of Poland.  Think of Pearl Harbor.  Think of 9/11.  These were not random acts of violence.  The perpetrators were advancing specific goals.  But nations can’t fight wars in that mode anymore.  A military encounter can too easily become mutually assured destruction.  Putin is showing us that our military might isn’t all that relevant because it threatens us as much as it threatens him.  So the modern war is war on information, and it is waged on the internet. 

Trump and his cronies aren’t just stupid—they are in on the plot.  It seems obvious now—Russia has been playing this long game of erosion for years.  Furthermore, by sowing wild conspiracy theories the entire time, they made it less likely for reasonable people to believe what is happening before their eyes.  And how amazingly effective that has been.  I believe the evidence is pretty compelling, but still I feel like a nut for throwing this out there.  (Soylent Green is people!!!!  But seriously has anyone investigated where the funding came from for Soylent, because it feels plausible for that to be part of Vlad’s sick joke.). 

The strategy is classic divide and conquer.  They have exploited our existing divisions, while weaponizing our media and stoking violence.  The Russian connection to the NRA is not a coincidence.  Wouldn’t the easy availability of guns be in their interest if this plot is as dark as it seems?

Speaking of weaponized media, do we think Mark Zuckerberg is a useful idiot or a witting accomplice?  Would the Russians have put all their eggs in the Donald Trump basket?  Mark Zuckerberg was laying groundwork for a political career, visiting all 50 states on a listening tour. We know that Facebook was compromised during the campaign.

Politicians are bought and paid for.  Read Dark Money by Jane Mayer.  We can’t even see where the money comes from.  It goes through elaborate and hidden funnels.  Without transparency, how do we know Russia has not funneled money to Paul Ryan?  Mitch McConnell?  Can their behavior really be explained by partisanship alone? I’m suspicious many high level Republicans are wittingly complicit.  They know how far the money trail goes.  Hence their obstructions and conspicuous lack of curiosity.

From the Washington Post over a year ago:

A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress—House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy—made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian president Vladimir Putin

“I think there’s two people Putin pays: Rohrabacker and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by the Washington Post.  Rep. Dana Rohrabacker is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Vladimir Putin is banking on our internal divisions to accomplish most of his dirty work.  The critical question seems to me: can ordinary Americans overcome that division, apathy, and fear?

Realizing this makes me strangely hopeful.  I think we can.  I think it could get very ugly, but this seems like the only way to redeem not just America and our reputation in the world, but democracy itself.

I love this country.  I love what we stand for.  I love being able to publish my snark without worrying about the government coming after me.  Our freedom is precious.  I believe this is the fight of our lives.  And how convenient—we can now fight wars from our couch.  I think we need to.  As a country, we must adapt our defenses, which will require communal effort on a grand scale.

So what do we do now?

Organize.  We need to make people understand the severity of the threat.

Expose the extents of the operation to the public.

Exercise our rights—use ‘em or lose ‘em, folks.

Seek help from our allies.  America has been attacked.

Make clear that having voted for Donald Trump does NOT constitute treason.  Trump voters got caught in a large apparatus designed to fool them.  We need our fellow Americans on our side.

Make offer to any person actively complicit (accepting money, misleading the public, hacking into servers, etc): come clean NOW.  You will regret not doing this.

Make clear that anyone who continues to cover-up and collude will be treated as an enemy of the state.

Direct all effort toward resistance.

Keep faith.

And what do we do after we win?

We must fundamentally reform campaign finance.  The American people must speak louder than money, be it foreign or domestic.

We must break up the mega-conglomerates.  We are experiencing the real threat monopolies pose to democracy.  They put too much power, information, and money in the hands of too few.  Even if their company missions are supposedly altruistic, they are vulnerable to being co-opted by bad actors, putting us all at risk.  It’s time for Facebook, Google, and Amazon to decentralize.

We must educate, educate, educate—invest in the continued learning of history, government, science, ethics, art, and logic.

We must maximize our cyber security.

We should consider implementing a mandatory national service program for young people.  Imagine the dividends if all eighteen-year-olds did a year of service in a state other than their own.  The sheltered kid from the suburbs can learn that the city doesn’t have to be a dangerous place.  The kid from the Bay Area can learn that Texas has more than gun-toting cowboys and oil barons.  They can all benefit from a year to breathe and think before rushing off to college.  The people that host them can learn to appreciate the next generation.  We have such beautiful diversity in this country—it is our greatest asset.  We can pop the bubbles we are currently stuck in by inviting each other to come see us where we live.  If we know each other, we cannot be made enemies of each other.

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Someone once asked me if I am an optimist or a pessimist.  I think sometimes it can be hard to tell.  I actually struggled to answer because I wasn’t sure.  But I know now that I am an optimist.  To me, being an optimist does not mean always taking the rosy view of things.  It means having hope.  As the contours of the enemy become clearer, I feel less anxiety and more confidence.  It’s easier to win when you know what you’re fighting.